Florida House approves school voucher, lawsuit limit bills

TALLAHASSEE — The Florida House gave final approval Friday to legislation creating universal vouchers paid for with tax dollars for use at private schools and sweeping lawsuit limits designed to benefit insurance companies and other businesses.

The bills are now teed up for Senate approval, which could come as soon as next week as the Legislature moves quickly through its regular session guided largely by the agenda of Gov. Ron DeSantis.

“The goal is to deliver education in a much different way than the one-size-fits-all model that we all knew growing up,” Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, said of the school voucher bill. “The Florida model factors in the unique learning needs of every child to deliver education by empowering parents and students to choose the best way to achieve their educational goals, regardless of zip code, race, or income.”

After more than two hours of debate, the House voted 83-27 for the voucher bill (HB 1).

But opponents, most of them Democrats, raised concerns about sweeping money out of the public school system and subsidizing private education, in part for the children of the rich.

“Everyone believes in the concept of parental choice,” said Rep. Robin Bartleman, D-Weston, but she then cited the Florida Constitution, which states that public education is a fundamental right that should be uniform, safe and of high quality.

“This bill and voucher program doesn’t create a uniform system as required,” Bartleman said. “All these private schools taking tax dollars do not play by the same rules as public schools.”

Private schools don’t follow the same standards as public schools, she said. Nor do they have to meet the same safety requirements as charter and public schools, she said.

Rep. Ralph Massulo, R-LeCanto, said quality education begins with choice.

“I didn’t hear anyone from the back row say they were against choice because we all know each child is unique,” said Massullo, who served on the board of Seven Rivers Christian School. “We differ in our philosophy of education. Some believe parents should have the right to decision making, others believe we should have one system that accommodates the need of every child.”

“Our goal isn’t to degrade public education in this state but to improve it,” Massullo said but also provide choice.

Florida should not make the same mistake as Arizona, House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell said.

“It was an unmitigated disaster,” she said, noting that wealthy families used coupons to pay for their children’s private school tuition.

The program cost the state $33 million the first year, $67 million the second and could be as high as $1 bilion by 2026, she said.

“It didn’t cause a mass migration from public schools but did cause a migration of public dollars to these private schools,” Driskell said.

Republican state lawmakers, who hold a supermajority in the Legislature, want to open up the state voucher programs that currently provide scholarships to more than 252,000 children with disabilities or from low-income families to be open to all 2.9 million school-age children in Florida.

Their proposals (HB 1 and SB 202) would give any parent the choice to receive a voucher for their child to be used for private school tuition or homeschooling services and supplies — as long as that student was not enrolled in public school.

DeSantis also has been a supporter of the programs.

Critics fear the planned expansion will decimate public school budgets — estimates of funding losses vary from $210 million to $4 billion in the first year — and encourage private schools of questionable quality to open or expand.

The state does not generally regulate private schools, so there are no requirements that teachers have college degrees or standardized testing to grade the quality of the schools.

Sen. Corey Simon, R-Tallahassee, put a $646 million price tag on the voucher expansion this week, a number that Democrats said is low.

Nearly three out of four schools that receive vouchers are religious in nature. Some critics argue that taxpayer money shouldn’t go to such schools.

The House approved HB 837 on tort reform 80-31 after about two hours of debate.

Families of shooting victims and motorcyclists came out in droves to oppose the legal reforms supported by the governor. They argued the changes could deny crime victims civil damages and shield businesses and insurance companies from being held responsible when they harm someone.

Supporters of the measure, mostly Republicans, objected to insurance companies being demonized.

A provision dealing with damages will hurt civil cases brought by crime victims, said Todd Michaels, a trial attorney and secretary of the Florida Justice Association, the state’s trial lawyers association.

The bill would allow damages to be assigned to the perpetrator of the crime in negligence cases, which Michaels said would let defendants who could have prevented a crime off the hook by shifting blame to the criminal.

But supporters of the lawsuit bill say litigation is out of control in Florida, which is driving up insurance premiums and hurting businesses.

DeSantis has called for reforms, saying Florida “has been considered a judicial hell hole due to excessive litigation and a legal system that benefitted the lawyers more than the people who are injured.”

The bill also would create a “presumption against liability” if apartment complexes have security cameras, lighting, locks and peepholes on doors. Supporters say that will make apartments safer, while opponents argue those safeguards are minimal and will stop legitimate claims from moving forward.

State Sen. Linda Stewart, D-Orlando, who sponsored last year’s Miya’s Law, which strengthens tenant safety measures, said she is also supporting the lawsuit bill and working to address apartment safety by adding to the measure.

Rep. Ashley Gantt, D-Miami, reminded her colleagues that DeSantis praised the bill when he signed it into law last year, saying that “every tenant deserves to be safe in their own home.”

The bill was named after Miya Marcano, a 19-year-old Valencia College sophomore from Pembroke Pines killed in 2021 by an apartment maintenance worker who had a master key to her apartment. Her father said the legislation would hurt his effort to bring accountability for her death.

“This bill will make that bill he signed just last year ineffective,” Gantt said.

Bikers are angered that someone who is found to be more than 50% at fault in their own accident would be denied damages entirely.

When assigning blame in a crash, jurors could consider whether a biker is wearing a helmet, which isn’t required under Florida law.

The legislation would also reduce the statute of limitations for filing negligence claims from four years to two years. It would make it harder to pursue “bad faith” lawsuits against insurers and revise laws about evidence of medical expenses that can be admitted in court in personal-injury and wrongful-death lawsuits.

News Service of Florida contributed to this report.